Documentary Thread #2

[Bellenda Carlisle]

21 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I’d love to have seen it on a cinema screen, although I reckon I would have ended up with severe vertigo!

I saw it at the cinema and I'm scared of heights, it was worse than a horror film.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

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Edited August 15, 2020 by Bellenda Carlisle

[DEF]

I've no idea if this has been brought up already but the Netflix doc The Speed Cubers is tremendous. It's only 40 minutes and it's well worth your time. It's about the Rubik's Cube speed championships. Holy fuck I love docs about subgenres I don't know much about and this is the epitome of that. But also about remarkable people.

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by DEF

[Bellenda Carlisle]

1 hour ago, DEF said:

I've no idea if this has been brought up already but the Netflix doc The Speed Cubers is tremendous.

Cheers, that was perfect for a 2am watch. That Feliks dude was adorable, I wish everyone was like him. 

[Magnum Milano]

After the talk of Free Solo in this thread I finally got around to watching it last night.  Without hesitation, the last twenty minutes is the most terrifying thing I have ever watched on TV.  My heart was pumping just watching, heaven knows how the guys who were doing the filming felt.

[Thunderplex]

On 8/17/2020 at 1:01 AM, DEF said:

I've no idea if this has been brought up already but the Netflix doc The Speed Cubers is tremendous. It's only 40 minutes and it's well worth your time. It's about the Rubik's Cube speed championships. Holy fuck I love docs about subgenres I don't know much about and this is the epitome of that. But also about remarkable people.

 

Just watched and loved it.  Made a change not having a Billy type villain in this, and it worked well because of it.

[Magnum Milano]

I have recently discovered the "nefarious means" way of being able to watch stuff so have been downloading a ton of stuff to my computer and using some of the recommendations in this thread as inspiration.  

Last night I watched Long Shot (2017), about Juan Catalan who is accused of a murder he says he never committed.  If convicted Catalan faces the death penalty, all he has to do now is prove his innocence.

 

Larry David is the hook here.  Catalan, who is being trialled on the basis of one eye witness, states that he was at an L.A. Dodgers game the night of the murder along with his daughter and a couple of friends.  After scouring numerous hours of tape his lawyer eventually finds Catalan in the crowd, however the picture is grainy, he needs something more substantial.  This is where Larry David comes into it as by some random piece of luck that night not only was he filming an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm at the game, but also filming right in the aisle where Catalan was sat.  That, and subsequent phone records, proves he was there and that it was impossible for him to be the murderer.  To be fair the phone records on their own may have been enough to prove his innocence, but that doesn't really make for an exciting story though.  A huge miscarriage of justice ultimately avoided and it shows why people ultimately have so much distrust of the police too with the way they were hellbent on trying to convict this chap.

  

Edited August 28, 2020 by Magnum Milano

[Magnum Milano]

Another recommendation that I found on going back through the thread.

Ecstasy of the Order: The Tetris Masters (2011)

Tetris aficionado Robin Mihara plans to put on the first ever Tetris World Championships in California and using the Twin Galaxies website invites all the games best players.  The most interesting name invited is Thor Aackerlund, who won the 1990 Nintendo World Championships but disappeared from public spotlight.  Aackerlund is also the only person to have reached the mythical Level 30 on the game (Level 29 being the kill screen), although with no video proof his claims are not fully believed.  We meet all the players and while there is no Billy Mitchell type bad guy, Ben Mullen comes across as a bit of a dick, while the Twin Galaxies official is a bit of weird one. 

 A champion is crowned, however when Aackerlund does poorly, there is some thought that he didn’t want to win after what happened when he won 1990.  The documentary ends with a tape submitted by Aackerlund where he not only reaches Level 30, but also maxes out (scoring 999,999) in the same game when starting on Level 19.

Mullen aside, all the featured players come across as good guys, even if they do nothing to dispel the stereotypical nerdy video gamer.  Aackerlund especially seems to have had a difficult life, being the prime bread winner for his family as a child and seemingly being highly exploited after his win, and takes a bit of getting use to the cameras.

[Chest Rockwell]

18 minutes ago, Magnum Milano said:

while the Twin Galaxies official is a bit of weird one. 

Colour me shocked!

[Hannibal Scorch]

I found by nefarious mean Happy happy, joy joy a documentary about the rise and fall of Ren and Stimpy. Interesting stuff and confirmation that John K is an absolute twat

[Egg Shen]

trying to get hold of a copy of this:

debuter on HBO Max a couple of days ago. Aint found it as of yet.

[CTXRussomark]

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

trying to get hold of a copy of this:

debuter on HBO Max a couple of days ago. Aint found it as of yet.

Oh that looks excellent! I've been fascinated by Action Park for years and had no idea this was being made.

[DavidB6937]

2 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

trying to get hold of a copy of this:

debuter on HBO Max a couple of days ago. Aint found it as of yet.

Just checked and it's on torrent sites if you can use those

[Magnum Milano]

Yeah, I've pm'd @Egg Shen a link to where I've been getting my docs from as it's up there. 

[wordsfromlee]

I’ve been watching through the new series, The Movies, on Sky Documentaries this week and it’s a really good look at the history of film with some great talking heads with some big players. 
 

It’s also made me realise that there are a lot of classic films that I really need to get round to watching.